Sunday 17th of August
Registration starts at 9, coffee/pastry served at 09:30-10:00
Workshop Start time: 10:30.
Location: Hall D, Otakaari 1.
Schedule
Talks
Vincent Wallace has over 20 years of experience in Biophotonics. He graduated with a PhD in Medical Physics from the University of London, in 1997. After three years at the Beckman Laser Institute, UC Irvine, he joined Toshiba Research in Cambridge, UK to look at potential medical applications of terahertz radiation. TeraView Ltd, also based in Cambridge, was spun-out of Toshiba Labs in April 2001. At TeraView, Vince led a group looking at medical applications of terahertz. In 2007 he moved to the University of Western Australia where he continues to apply terahertz and other techniques to biomedical and clinical problems.
Vincent Wallace
TIME:
10:30-11:30
TITLE:
Terahertz as a biomedical diagnostic technology – is it just water?
Terahertz radiation shows promise for biomedical imaging and diagnostics due to its sensitivity to tissue water content, which can indicate disease states. Key biomedical applications include skin cancer detection, breast tumour margin identification during surgery, and burn assessment. The presentation covers three interconnected research areas: molecular-scale interactions with proteins, cellular-level effects, tissue-level imaging capabilities, and how the state of water, whether it be bound or free water, determines the THz response. While THz technology has demonstrated significant potential for in vivo medical imaging and real-time surgical guidance, challenges remain in penetration depth, speed, and clinical translation. Understanding THz biological interactions is crucial for safety considerations and advancing their potential in niche applications.
Fabio Novelli earned his PhD in nonlinear optics and condensed matter Physics in 2013 from the University of Trieste (Italy) under the supervision of Fulvio Parmigiani and Daniele Fausti. From 2014 to 2016 he worked on multidimensional coherent effects in light-harvesting proteins with Jeff Davis at Swinburne University, Australia. From 2017 to 2022 he investigated aqueous solutions with Martina Havenith at Ruhr University, Germany. Since 2023, he has been Principal Investigator on an Individual Research Grant (DFG) exploring the conductivity of gold nanoparticles suspensions. He was recently appointed as Associate Professor in Physics at the University of Southampton, UK.
Dr. Ellen Adams leads the DRESDEN-concept Research Group for Physical Chemistry of Biomolecular Condensates. Her position with tenure track to a professorship is jointly funded by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life (PoL) at TU Dresden. Dr. Ellen Adams aims to use the latest terahertz technologies to decipher biophysical processes of interfaces – so-called membrane-less condensates – in the cell interior, which for example play a role in neurodegenerative diseases.
Ellen Adams
TIME:
14:30-15:30
TITLE:
Terahertz Tales of Water: A Guide to Spectral Insights
Water is essential for a vast range of chemical, physical, and biological processes, yet its molecular dynamics remain not fully understood. Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy has been shown to be a powerful tool to investigate solvent dynamics in bulk solutions. Radiation in the THz regime is directly sensitive to the low frequency collective intermolecular hydrogen-bonding vibrations of water (0.3-6 THz or 10-200 cm–1), and thus to any changes in the hydrogen-bonding network. Changes in these sub-picosecond collective motions, such as solute-water interactions, result in changes in the measured THz absorption. From such experiments, information on hydration water can be obtained, and have previously shed light on how individual hydration shells have been shown to contribute to chemical reactivity, binding of ions and ligands, and regulating the structure and function of biomolecules. Here, the fundamentals of THz spectroscopy and its specific application to studying water will be introduced. Key spectral features of water in the THz regime will be discussed along with proper methods for analyzing spectra of aqueous systems. Both Fourier transform and time domain THz approaches will be covered, with a particular focus on aqueous protein solutions. From this workshop a foundational understanding of how THz spectroscopy opens new windows into the molecular world of water will be gained.